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No. 7V 



WHY 250,000 CHILDREN QUIT 
SCHOOL 

THE YEARLY ARMY THAT DROPS OUT OF LINE- 
STANDARDS TOO HIGH AND TEACHING TOO DULL 



LUTHER H. GULICK, M.D. 

DIKECTOR, DEPAKTUENT OF CHILD HYGIENE, KUSSEU, SACK FOUNDATION 



Reprinted from the "World's Work," August, 1910 



DEPARTMENT OF CHILD HYGIENE 
RUSSELL SAGE FOUNDATION 

1 Madison Avenue, New York City 



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Why 250,000 Children Quit School 



Last June an army of 250,000 boys and girls, 
about fourteen and a half years old, marched from 
the city public schools of America, proudly bearing 
the evidence of having completed successfully the 
eight years of study. During that month and the 
months preceding there dropped from the ranks 
another army of 250,000 children who had failed 
of graduation. They were of about equal age and 
had spent about the same length of time in school 
as their more fortunate schoolmates. The larger 
fraction of these 250,000 educational failures had 
completed only six of the eight years in the course 
of study. 

Note. — Three years ago the Russell Sage Foundation com- 
missioned Dr. Gulick and Dr. Leonard P. Ayres to collect the 
facts about children who quit school. With the co-operation of 
Superintendent Maxwell an intensive study was made of the 
records of 40,000 children in New York City. The extensive 
studies covered the records of over 2,000,000 children in 80 cities. 
The conclusions reached are set forth in this article. — The Edi- 
tors. 



This is our great educational problem. It 
transcends in importance all questions as to the 
method and scope, content or intent, for the first 
thing to do is to get the children to attend school. 

The whole theory of democracy is built on the 
assumption that the voters shall be intelligent. 
The last two years of the elementary schools con- 
tain the studies basal to intelligent citizenship — 
United States history, civics, commercial geog- 
raphy, etc. 

Our school systems have accomplished the first 
task given to them. They have in less than a 
century reached the point where all the pupils do 
actually get a working knowledge of the funda- 
mentals of an intelligent life, namely, the ability to 
read the daily papers, to write, to do such opera- 
tions with figures as are involved in daily financial 
transactions. This has never been done before in 
the history of the world. Heretofore the bulk of 
the world got what education it secured in the 
home. In a single century the world has developed 
a social instrument which actually does this funda- 
mental and world-changing thing — that is, puts the 
"three R's" into the possession of all. 



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3 

We in the United States are making a new de- 
mand of our schools. The pupils must learn the 
fundamental facts necessary to intelligent citizen- 
ship. Because of the decay of the apprenticeship 
system we may have to include vocational training 
in the schools; but, whether this is to come or not, 
it is necessary for all to become intelligent citizens. 

The last two years of the course are by all odds 
the most valuable years. In a certain sense the 
first years are but preparatory to the last two years. 
During the first years the pupil has been mainly 
acquiring the tools of education. During the last 
two years he learns more about applying these 
tools than he does during the whole first six years. 
In such subjects as commercial geography he will 
get light upon the activities of all our people. The 
study of how our country is governed — civics — is 
basal to intelligent citizenship. The study of 
United States history has been parenthetical and 
inadequate during the preceding years. During 
the last two years it is comprehensive and consecu- 
tive. This tragedy, therefore, of the bulk of the 
children who fail of graduation is that they succeed 



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in accomplishing no more than the first six years of 
the course. 

How, then, may we save this army of 250,000 
children who drop out of school without completing 
the last two years of the course ? I use the word 
"save" deliberately, for a large fraction of these 
250,000 children drop out of school because they 
have failed. They are humiliated, their confidence 
in their own ability is destroyed, and the soul- 
destroying conviction is ground into them that they 
are " failures," " stupid," " dumb," or " backward."!/' 

My point of view is that of the non-technical 
business man who discovers that his factory is 
finishing up only 50 per cent, of its raw material. 
He wants to know what is the matter, and particu- 
larly how to stop this 50 per cent, of loss. 

This article is written in the belief that there are 
at least four great underlying sources of loss which 
belong in varying degrees to all the schools in all 
parts of the country, both urban and rural, north, 
south, east, and west. It is true that the problem 
of the rural schools is different from the problem 
of the city schools, that the standards of the licens- 



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ing of teachers varies greatly in the different states, 
that the general intelligence in different communi- 
ties varies considerably, that the courses of study 
are widely variant, and that there are many other 
factors which render the problem complex. 

Taking all this into account, however, there 
appear to be at least four great sources of loss : 

1. Losses from the ranks, due to the lack of 
adjustment between the length of the compulsory 
education period and the length of the school course. 

2. Losses due to preventable ill health or to 
removable physical defects. 

3. Losses due to irregular school attendance. 

4. Losses due to the fact that the courses of 
study are either too difficult or not adapted to the 
average pupil. The school machinery is such that 
every facility is given children to go more slowly 
than the average, and but little opportunity to go 
faster than the average. 

I take these up seriatim: 



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Six- Year Laws with Eight- Year 
Courses 



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SIX-YEAR LAWS WITH EIGHT-YEAR COURSES 

In most of the states the law requires six years 
or less of school attendance, and yet the elementary 
course in most American states involves eight 
grades with a year apiece. So we have a six-year 
law with an eight-year school. In several states 
the law appears to require eight years, but in 
reality demands only six. For example, in Massa- 
chusetts the law requires the child to attend school 
from the age of eight to sixteen, but excuses him at 
fourteen if he has regular employment at home or 
elsewhere. The states demanding eight full years 
of schooling are Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, and 
Washington. 

There are two factors basal to the length of the 
elementary school course. Upon these facts the 
duration of the compulsory education period should 
be established. These are: first, at what age is it 
best that a child should enter school; and second, 
at what age should pupils graduate from the ele- 
mentary school ? 

Under existing conditions it appears that, on the 



10 

average, children who enter school at six or seven 
do better for themselves and the school than those 
who enter at any other age. We have long been 
told that children who enter school at eight would 
be advanced enough mentally soon to catch up 
with, if not to pass, those who enter at six. The 
study of 40,000 children's records by my associate. 
Dr. Leonard P. Ayres, to whom I am indebted for 
all the data in this article, does not support this 
claim. Children who enter at eight or nine do pro- 
gress faster than those who enter at six or seven, but 
not enough faster to make up for their handicap. 
More children graduate who enter at six and seven 
than who enter at eight and nine. Under present 
conditions, then, children should begin school 
when they are six or seven years old. 

Children should graduate at fourteen or fifteen. 
A change ought to and does come over children at 
that time which demands a less maternalistic en- 
vironment than that of the elementary school. 
They are gripped by a new spirit of energy and 
independence which demands either the larger 
liberty of the high school or the obligations of 



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business. Even the best of children are restless 
and unsuited in the elementary school after four- 
teen. With a wonderful uniformity the average 
age of leaving school ranges from fourteen to fif- 
teen all over the country. This is true whether 
they have graduated or not, whether they are 
native born or foreign born, white or black, 
whether the course of study is easy or hard, or 
even whether the teachers and teaching equipment 
are good or bad. 

It is a great biological fact which we are dealing 
with. When the wings of the nestling are grown 
it leaves the nest. The same kind of force drives 
children out of the elementary school soon after 
they are fourteen. The elementary form of school 
is suited to children but not to adolescents. This 
is the first reason why children drop out of school 
at fourteen, no matter in what grade or part of the 
country they are. 

The first thing that we need, then, is a com- 
pulsory attendance law, without *' jokers" or excep- 
tions, which shall require children to begin school 
at six or seven and stay in school for eight years. 



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Why Children Leave School 



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15 



WHY CHILDREN LEAVE SCHOOL 

Why do half of the children drop out of school 
before graduating ? Sixteen per cent, of all who 
drop out do so because of ill health; and those who 
have physical defects, such as poor hearing, poor 
seeing, hypertrophied tonsils, adenoids, or de- 
cayed teeth, progress through school 9 per cent, 
more slowly than children who are not so handi- 
capped. 

Suppose that a child is somewhat deaf and so 
does not learn enough of what is going on to do 
well. He fails and has to repeat the first grade. 
After it is discovered that he is deaf, a seat in the 
front row is always given him. He makes no more 
failures. He entered school at seven, at nine he 
entered the second grade, at ten the third, at 
eleven the fourth, at twelve the fifth, and at thir- 
teen the sixth. There seems to be no question 
about the general truth of these figures. The 
chances are good that this boy will drop out of 
school. If he is followed by the school oflScer it 
will be shown that the boy is already in his four- 



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teenth year, and that he will drop out on his four- 
teenth birthday anyway without completing the 
year. The result is that he is out either then or 
on his fourteenth birthday. He reasons that he 
cannot hope to graduate, for that will take him 
till he is sixteen, so he had better drop out at once. 

Medical inspection as already carried on in 
many places will detect all these cases before they 
have failed, and an efficient "follow-up" system 
will see that the defects are removed. It is waste- 
ful to the state and inhuman to the child to have 
his progress in school blocked because he has some 
removable defect that prevents his seeing, hear- 
ing, breathing, or chewing. Children with bad 
teeth are, on an average, six months behind those 
in school with good teeth. Purely on the basis of 
economy, it is cheaper to have the teeth of these 
children filled than it is to pay for the extra six 
months' instruction or to have the children drop 
out of school with a year less of education than 
they otherwise would have had. 

Now about the i6 per cent, who drop out be- 
cause of ill health. Adequate attention to a few 
simple matters will remove most of this. 






17 

1. Medical inspection can stop the school's 
being a means of spreading measles, scarlet fever, 
and diphtheria. 

2. No matter what the system or lack of system 
of ventilation, every v^indow in the building could 
be opened for three minutes every period, or at 
least every hour. During this time the pupils 
should march around, sing, dance, and do exer- 
cises. Change of temperature is as important as 
purity of air, and moving around every little while 
is essential to good work. The method of opening 
the windows and taking exercise all at once avoids 
disturbing the balance of circulation in a pressure 
system of ventilation, and avoids the evil of noise. 

3. The building and pupils must be clean. 
Send the children home if they smell, and clean the 
building by the vacuum system. In most schools 
a cloud of dust rises about three feet from the floor 
when the children run or dance on it. No wonder 
that they have colds. The school building could 
and should be as clean as a hospital, and for the 
same reasons. These three steps will largely 
prevent losses from illness. 



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Here are two largely preventable leaks in our 
school systems: 

1. About 1 6 per cent, of those who drop out do 
so because of ill health. 

2. Those having removable physical defects make 
g per cent, slower progress than they should. 



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To Stop the Leakage 






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TO STOP THE LEAKAGE 

Another great leak in our school systems is due 
to intermittent attendance. The facts found by 
studying the records of all American cities which 
give in detail information about the regularity of 
attendance of their school children, are the follow- 
ing: 

Three children out of four attend school regu- 
larly, that is, more than three-fourths of the time. 
One child out of four attends school irregularly, 
that is, less than three-fourths of the school year. 
It is not to be expected that a child can master the 
work of a grade well enough to be promoted in 
less than three-fourths of the time. 

London, England, and a good many American 
smaller cities have almost stopped this leak in the 
school system. It is accomplished by two steps 
efficiently taken: 

1. A school census which accurately locates 
every child of school agein the community. 

2. Adequately administered school laws, so that 
all who are not in school are immediately followed 
up. 



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There are at present many children who do not 
go to school simply because the city has no knowl- 
edge of their existence. They have never been 
registered in school. A child moves to another 
part of the city, takes his transfer slip, and it may 
be a month before he appears at the new school. 
Many children stay away from school for a month 
or so after school has begun; many drop out a 
week or two before the Christmas holidays and do 
not come back till a week or two after. Many, 
especially boys, drop out late in May or early in 
June. 

Prompt following up of these cases in communi- 
ties where it has been tried always results in estab- 
lishing the habit of regular attendance the whole 
school year. Every child who is not keeping up 
because of intermittent attendance or any other 
cause tends to hold the entire class back and to 
absorb an undue proportion of the time of the 
teacher. 



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High Standards versus Good Standards 




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HIGH STANDARDS VERSUS GOOD STANDARDS 

At present our courses of study are not fitted to 
the abilities of the average pupil, but to those of 
the unusually bright one. In an investigation in 
New York City it v^^as found that for every child 
making rapid progress through the grades there 
were eight who made slow progress. Last year, 
in a Massachusetts city, for every one making 
rapid progress there were twenty-one making slow 
progress. In a large city in Pennsylvania the slow 
pupils are fourteen times as numerous as the rapid 
ones. In five other cities in different parts of the 
country the slow pupils are from ten to one hundred 
and fifty times as numerous as the rapid ones. 
The condition is general if not universal. It is 
probably a most conservative statement to say 
that in the average city there are at least ten times 
as many children making slow progress as there 
are making rapid progress. 

I know that the difficulty in making up a grade 
once lost lies not mainly in the course of study but 
in our lack of school machinery adapted to help 



26 

the pupil to regain a lost grade or to gain a grade. 
But the large number who lose grades shows that 
the course of study or the promotion conditions 
must be changed. The essential and the only 
essential condition for promotion should be the 
attainment of such knowledge and skill as will 
permit of the next grade being understood. This 
involves in most years only a fraction of the whole 
work covered. Arithmetic is almost the only 
subject that is so consecutive that one year's work 
absolutely depends on that of the previous year. 
And even here the essentials are addition, sub- 
traction, multiplication, division, fractions, and 
percentage. It is less expensive and more humane 
to give special help to a child that he may be pro- 
moted than it is to degrade him with all the loss to 
the individual, the school, and the community 
which is involved. z**^ ' 

The objection raised is that this means lowering 
the standards. A high standard is one which se- 
cures the best and most effective and successful 
work from the pupil. Those standards are vicious 
and low which promote failure and discourage- 






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27 

ment. I know one teacher who for years has 
"failed" over half of each successive class by so- 
called "high standards." That woman is respon- 
sible for the termination of the school career of 
hundreds of boys and girls who average up well 
both in effort and mental power. The trouble is 
with the standard. A man teaching boys to 
jump, who should put the stick at such a height 
that a considerable number failed and stopped 
trying, would not be regarded as maintaining high 
standards. It is his business to teach boys to 
jump — not to discourage them so that they will 
leave the field. 

This army of failure, consisting of the 250,000 
children who each year leave our city schools, 
having failed of graduation, may be largely re- 
cruited into the army of success, those who grad- 
uate, by four measures : 

1. Having a genuine eight-year compulsory 
school law for the eight-year school. 

2. Having medical inspection of school children 
with adequate "follow-up" work by school nurses 
or teachers. This brings the rate of progress of 



28 

the children having defects up to the normal. 
Adequate hygienic supervision of the school and 
its work largely does away with the i6 per cent, of 
those who drop out because of ill health. 

3. A complete school census and an adequate 
administration of attendance officers cut down all 
failures due to the fact that 25 per cent, of the 
children now attend school but three-quarters of 
the time. 

4. The course of study and school machinery 
must be so adapted to the average that as many 
will go faster as go slower than the mass. 

In a school system with 1,000 pupils entering 
each year and 83 per cent, promoted each year, 
there will be 830 who complete the first grade in 
one year; of this number, 689 will go through the 
second grade in one year, 572 the third, 475 the 
fourth, 393 the fifth, 326 the sixth, 271 the seventh, 
and 225 will graduate without having failed. A 
few will go faster than this, and about 250 will 
keep on in spite of one or more years of failure, so 
that eventually about 500 will be graduated each 
year. These are the present conditions in Ameri- 
can city schools. In those systems that have 




29 

changed these promotion rates to 95 per cent, or 
better, the figures are as follows : 

950 complete the first year without failure 
903 complete the second year without failure 
858 complete the third year without failure 
815 complete the fourth year without failure 
774 complete the fifth year without failure 
735 complete the sixth year without failure 
698 complete the seventh year without failure 
663 complete the course without failure. 

And it would be reasonable to expect that those 
who continue in spite of having failed only once in 
their course will nevertheless graduate. This will 
give a total of 941 — that is, 94 per cent. 

These four measures do not increase the total 
expenditure for instruction in any respect. They 
decrease, not increase, the number of children in 
school at any one time, for children are promoted 
and graduated promptly. They give 94 per cent, 
of the children the important studies in the two 
upper years of the course, while at present only 
one-half of the children get these studies. 



30 

These measures stop the "blocking" in the 
lower grades, raise the health and efficiency stand- 
ards of the whole body of pupils and teachers, and 
tend to establish the habit of success rather than 
the habit of failure in the pupils. This is of 
greater importance than anything in the course of 
study. It sends the children out into the world 
with hope rather than with discouragement. 

The accomplishment of this result, the conver- 
sion of the army of failure into an addition to the 
army of success, is the second great achievement of 
the American city schools. 



> 



OPEN AIR SCHOOLS 

BY LEONARD P. AYRES. A. M.. Ph. D. 

Associate Director, Department op Child Hygiene, Russell Sage Foundation; 

Co-AuTHOR OF Medical Inspection of Schools; Author of Laggards in 

Our Schools, etc. 

The first book in any language devoted to the new type of schools in which 
sick and ailing children are made healthy and vigorous and at the same time 
make better progress in their lessons than normal children in ordinary schools. 
Profusely and beautifully illustrated. ■■'!: 

Doubleday, Page & Co., New York Price $1.20 (postage 12c.) 

Russell Sa^e Foundation Publications 



MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 

BY LUTHER HALSEY GULICK. M.D. 
Director of Physical Training of the New York Public Schools; and 

LEONARD P. AYRES. A.M.. Ph.D. 

Formerly General Superintendent of Schools for Porto Rico 

"Lucidly exhaustive and admirably arranged." — The Nation. 

"A notable contribution both to medicine and to school administration." — Erie 
Dispatch. 

"An important contribution to the cause of Education." — Journal of Edu- 
cation. 

Third Edition. Price, postpaid, $1.00 

LAGGARDS IN OUR SCHOOLS 

A Study of Retardation and Elimination in City School Systems 
BY LEONARD P. AYRES, A. M., Ph. D. 

Formerly General Superintendent of Schools for Porto Rico; Co-Author of 
Medical Inspection of Schools, Author of Open Air Schools. 

"Mr. Ayres has given life to his figures and character to his diagrams." — 
American Industries. 

"Such a book, at once readable and scholarly, scientific and popular, critical 
and constructive, is typical of the best in educational literature." — The Independent. 

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made by any one." — Journal of Education. 

Third Edition. Price, postpaid, $1.50. In lots of six, $1.00 each, postpaid 

THE WIDER USE OF THE SCHOOL 
PLANT 

BY CLARENCE ARTHUR PERRY 

A volume of 350 pages with 32 illustrations describing fully the use of the 
school plant for such activities as Vacation Schools, Public Lectures, Social Centres, 
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and organization are fully treated. 

Price, postpaid, $1.25 

CHARITIES PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 
105 East 22d Street, New York City, N. Y. 



